jeanne marie laskas

Ben Roethlisberger is only 27. He already has two Super Bowl rings and a $100 million contract with the most storied franchise in football. How much longer does he want to stick around? Until heís the best ever read more

At any given moment, on any given morning, there are roughly 6,000 planes on their way to somewhere, from somewhere, over American airspace. Getting them safely down to the ground will depend upon the efforts of a small group of controllers who, nearly without fail, get the job done despite long hours, grim working conditions, and ancient technology. Jeanne Marie Laskas journeys to the tower at LaGuardia Airport in New York City to find out how it all happens read more

Jimmy Kimmel does solemnly swear to faithfully execute the role of beloved late-night host (even if Jay Leno ends up taking his job at ABC) and will to the best of his ability preserve, protect, and defend his right to satirize, send up, and ridicule anybody (including all 742 members of his family, but not including his ex, Sarah Silverman) who gets in his way read more

On a $500 million man-made island in the frozen Arctic Ocean, just off the coast of a vast, uninhabitable tundra known as Alaska's North Slope, a pipeline begins. In temperatures that hover around forty-five degrees below zero, in perpetual darkness, a tight-knit band of roughnecks spends twelve hours a day, seven days a week, drilling down, down into the earth and pulling up precious crude. If you want to know how badly we need oil, here is your answer read more

Two centuries of heedless gorging and historic wastefulness has left us with an intractable environmental problem: What do we do with our trash? More specifically, what do we do with the 250 million tons (thatís five pounds per person per day) of pizza boxes, beer bottles, shredded lettuce, old refrigerators, and half-eaten burritos that we throw away each year? read more

Why do we even have coal mines? That question is what led Jeanne Marie Laskas to spend a few weeks 500 feet belowground, getting to know the men behind the invisible economy this country couldn't live without read more

After self-immolating in Philadelphia and alienating just about every teammate, fan, and league official, banished wide receiver Terrell Owens traded in his uniform for the seasonís best loungewear, from boxers to robes to sweats. Can we all be punished like this? read more